The San Antonio native fell short of his championship aspirations, finishing eight and earning $971,360. It's life-changing money for a 27-year old self-employed professional poker player.

It was a mixed bag of the highs and lows that come with playing the dangerous game of no-limit Hold 'Em poker.

After staying out of the action through the first 10 hands, Salaburu went on a run the following 20 that had him in complete control of the final table.

He picked up all five pots he entered, as his chip stack grew from the opening $15.15 million to $24.6 million, at the time the third-largest stack at the table. None of the remaining eight players won more pots through that span.

However, the downward spiral started to turn moments later.

The beginning of the end started three hours into the tournament when Salaburu had the unfortunate timing of running his Qs-Qh into the Kd-Kc held by Jake Balsiger.

Balsiger's hand held up after all the money got in before the flop, transforming Salaburu from a position of comfort into a somewhat desperate situation.

“Pretty hard to fold queens there,” pro Antonio Esfandiari said on ESPN. “You have to call. If you have jacks, 10s or nines it's one thing, but there was a very good chance he was up against A-K.”

Moments later, Salaburu moved all in with a pair of sevens before the flop and was called by a Qc-5c by Jesse Sylvia, the big stack at the table.

Sylvia hit a queen on the final card to eliminate Salaburu from the tournament.

“I was real comfortable,” a visibly shaken Salaburu said to ESPN. “All I can do is try to go deep again (next year). We'll see what happens.”

Had Salaburu finished in the chip position he started, he would have stood to take home more than $1.25 million.